Afghanistan

Gender, Agency and Decision Making in Community Engagement: Reflections from Afghanistan’s Mes Aynak Mine

Citation:

Rickard, Sophie. 2020. “Gender, Agency and Decision Making in Community Engagement: Reflections from Afghanistan’s Mes Aynak Mine.” The Extractive Industries and Society 7 (2): 435–45. 

Author: Sophie Rickard

Abstract:

This paper explores what constitutes meaningful participation of women in community consultation processes of extractive operations, through a case study of the Mes Aynak Copper Mine resettlement in Afghanistan. It aims to better understand the factors that enable and constrain women’s agency and ability to effectively influence decisions; and how the understanding of gender and culture in Afghanistan by key stakeholders’ influences women’s participation in the sector. Through a review of the literature and key Mes Aynak project documents, as well as interviews with experts, practitioners and civil society, the paper unpacks women’s participation in community engagement processes, drawing on Arnstein’s ladder of participation (Arnstein, 1969) as a basis to explore women’s participation. It explores the role of gender and culture in determining outcomes and provides reflections on how to improve women’s meaningful participation in Afghanistan’s extractive industries. Crucially, it was found that there is a need to critically examine how key sector stakeholders understand and engage with cultural norms around women’s participation in the sector; as well as the need to work with the Citizens Charter programme to reinforce inclusion and avoid the sector exacerbating existing inequalities.

Keywords: community engagement, resettlement, Afghanistan, extractive industries, mining, participation

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2020

Inclusive Education in a Fragile Context: Redesigning the Agricultural High School Curriculum in Afghanistan with Gender in Mind

Citation:

Salm, Mundie, Khalida Mukhlid, and Hamdullah Tokhi. 2020. "Inclusive Education in a Fragile Context: Redesigning the Agricultural High School Curriculum in Afghanistan with Gender in Mind." Gender and Education 32 (5): 577-93.

Authors: Mundie Salm, Khalida Mukhlid, Hamdullah Tokhi

Abstract:

This paper examines attempts by a joint Dutch-Afghan capacity development project to bring more gender-responsive elements into the Agricultural High School (AHS) curriculum in the fragile context of Afghanistan. It reviews the gender-specific results of semester-long piloting (including classroom observation and interviews) of the redesigned textbooks and accompanying teachers' instructions at ten AHSs. It also examines experiences of teaching on gender themes. The findings show that it is possible to introduce more gender-responsiveness in the Afghan curriculum, but because it is used nationwide, great limitations on terminology and the kinds of female representation are imposed determined by the most conservative regions where schools are also located. These limitations and how to get around them are analysed in the article, through concrete examples showing the complex interactions with different layers involved when initiating change in such a 'fragile context'. This article can be useful to those designing and teaching courses with elements of gender, illustrating how particular contexts demand a flexible and creative approach when delving into inclusivity issues.

Topics: Education, Gender, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2020

Unfulfilled Promises: Women and Peace in Post-Taliban Afghanistan

Citation:

Farhoumand-Sims, Cheshmak. 2007. “Unfulfilled Promises: Women and Peace in Post-Taliban Afghanistan.” International Journal: Canada’s Journal of Global Policy Analysis 62 (3): 643–63.

Author: Cheshmak Farhoumand-Sims

Annotation:

"Following 30 years of protracted conflict, Afghanistan has begun a slow and laborious path to peace, and Canada has been one of its most staunch supporters both in words and deeds. Understanding the root causes of the conflict is a difficult task requiring analysis of a plethora of issues, actors, motivations, and other complexities" (Farhoumand-Sims 2007, 643).
 
"As already mentioned, the complexities resulting from militarism and violence are beyond the scope of this article. Instead, I would like to touch on three main issues that are particularly relevant to discussions of peace in Afghanistan" (646). 
 
"The first is the deteriorating security situation that poses a severe challenge to development and reconstruction efforts, particularly in the rural areas" (647).
 
"The second ongoing concern is the undeserved and continued power and authority bestowed upon warlords who support and benefit from the drug trade and who use threats, intimidation, and injury to secure support" (648).
 
"The third concern is the lack of progress on the advancement of women and the international community’s failure to deliver on promises made to Afghan women five years ago. The status of women is a litmus test for success in Afghanistan. The ability of women to enjoy equal rights and access equal opportunities in any given society is an important—though less talked-about—characteristic of sustainable peace" (649).

Topics: Conflict, Development, Economies, War Economies, Gender, Women, Peace and Security, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2007

Climate Change, Gender, and Rethinking Military Operations

Citation:

Jody M. Prescott. 2014. “Climate Change, Gender, and Rethinking Military Operations.” Vermont Journal of Environmental Law 15 (4): 766–802.

Author: Jody M. Prescott

Annotation:

Summary:
"The linkages between climate change, gender, and military operations are not necessarily immediately obvious. This article argues, however, that a particular type of unit, the Agricultural Development Team (“ADT”), developed and deployed to Afghanistan since 2007, has not only demonstrated the capability to address the gender-differentiated, climate change-related sources of insecurity at the tactical level, but that it could also serve as a model to effectively factor the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change across the broad spectrum of U.S. military operations.  To support this argument, this article will first explore the gender- and sex differentiated impacts of climate change upon populations, and why women, particularly in developing countries, tend to be more vulnerable to these impacts. Mindful of this operational reality for U.S. forces deployed to these areas, this article reviews current U.S. military doctrine setting out the means and methods by which the U.S. military interacts with local civilian populations in foreign nations. In particular, this article further assesses the significance of DoD’s failure to meaningfully address the environment and gender in military-civilian operations. The third section of this article explains the role of the ADT in the context of other types of military-civilian interface units that the U.S. military has developed and used in Afghanistan. In the fourth section, this article briefly describes various ADT projects to highlight ways in which wartime missions can mitigate climate change’s effects and enable vulnerable population cohorts such as women to adapt to its effects. These descriptions are based in part upon interviews with National Guard officers that recently led different ADTs in Afghanistan. In conclusion, more fully factoring the process of climate change and the importance of its gender-differentiated impacts into modern military operations would help create the conditions which could lead to sustainable social and economic stability in countries challenged by the effects of armed conflict and climate change. Such stability is crucial for the reestablishment and growth of the rule of law, a cornerstone of U.S. stability and reconstruction policy" (Prescott 2014, 768-769).

 

Topics: Agriculture, Armed Conflict, Combatants, Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Security Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2014

Mothers, Mercenaries and Mediators: Women Providing Answers to the Questions We Forgot to Ask

Citation:

Henty, Pip, and Beth Eggleston. 2018. “Mothers, Mercenaries and Mediators: Women Providing Answers to the Questions We Forgot to Ask.” Security Challenges 14(2): 106-23.

 

Authors: Pip Henty, Beth Eggleston

Abstract:

Current initiatives in countering violent extremism (CVE) often see women excluded or marginalised from the development, implementation and evaluation of these efforts. From informal grassroots levels to formal government platforms, women’s participation and perspectives in CVE continue to be absent or minimal. This paper analyses the role women can play in CVE, including leveraging global frameworks such as the Women, Peace and Security agenda. In providing case studies of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Tajikistan, this paper seeks to elaborate on and promote women’s engagement for more effective CVE outcomes.

 

Topics: Civil Society, Gender, Peace and Security, Terrorism, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, Violence Regions: Asia, East Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Tajikistan

Year: 2018

Gendering Military Sacrifice: A Feminist Comparative Analysis

Citation:

Åse, Cecilia, and Maria Wendt, eds. 2019. Gendering Military Sacrifice: A Feminist Comparative Analysis. London: Routledge.

Authors: Cecilia Åse, Maria Wendt

Annotation:

Summary:
This book offers a feminist analysis of military sacrifice and reveals the importance of a gender perspective in understanding the idea of honourable death.
 
In present-day security discourses, traditional masculinised obligations to die for the homeland and its women and children are challenged and renegotiated. Working from a critical feminist perspective, this book examines the political and societal justifications for sacrifice in wars motivated by human rights and an international responsibility to protect. With original empirical research from six European countries, the volume demonstrates how gendered and nationalistic representations saturate contemporary notions of sacrifice and legitimate military violence. A key argument is that a gender perspective is necessary in order to understand, and to oppose, the idea of the honourable military death. Bringing together a wide range of materials – including public debates, rituals, monuments and artwork – to analyse the justifications for soldiers’ deaths in the Afghanistan war (2002–14), the analysis challenges methodological nationalism. The authors develop a feminist comparative methodology and engage in cross-country and transdisciplinary analysis. This innovative approach generates new understandings of the ways in which both the idealisation and the political contestation of military violence depend on gendered national narratives.
 
This book will be of much interest to students of gender studies, critical military studies, security studies and International Relations. (Summary from Taylor & Francis)
 
Table of Contents:
1. Introduction
Cecilia Åse
 
2. Comparison as Feminist Method
Cecilia Åse and Maria Wendt
 
3. The Politics of War Rituals
Maria Wendt
 
4. The New National War Monuments
Vron Ware
 
5. Artistic Interventions
Redi Koobak
 
6. Debating Deaths
Hanne Martinek
 
7. Gendered Grief
Cecilia Åse, Monica Quirico, and Maria Wendt
 
8. Conclusion
Cecilia Åse and Maria Wendt

Topics: Armed Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries, Nationalism, Violence Regions: Asia, South Asia, Europe Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2019

A Qualitative Study of Women’s Lived Experiences of Conflict and Domestic Violence in Afghanistan

Citation:

Mannell, Jenevieve, Gulraj Grewal, Lida Ahmad, and Ayesha Ahmad. 2020. "A Qualitative Study of Women’s Lived Experiences of Conflict and Domestic Violence in Afghanistan." Violence Against Women. doi:10.1177/1077801220935191.

Authors: Jenevieve Mannell, Gulraj Grewal, Lida Ahmad, Ayesha Ahmad

Abstract:

This article empirically explores women’s lived experiences of domestic violence and conflict in Afghanistan. A thematic analysis of 20 semistructured interviews with women living in safe houses produced three main themes about the relationship between conflict and domestic violence: (a) violence from loss of patriarchal support, (b) violence from the drug trade as an economic driver, and (c) violence from conflict-related poverty. We discuss the bidirectional nature of this relationship: Not only does conflict contribute to domestic violence, but domestic violence contributes to conflict through justifying armed intervention, separating women from economic and public life, and perpetuating patriarchy.

Keywords: domestic violence, Afghanistan, lived experience, patriarchy, armed conflict

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Conflict, Domestic Violence, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2020

Sticking to Their Guns: The United Nations’ Failure to See the Potential of Islamic Feminism in the Promotion of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

Citation:

Ghadery, Farnush. 2019. "Sticking to Their Guns: The United Nations’ Failure to See the Potential of Islamic Feminism in the Promotion of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan." In The Asian Yearbook of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, edited by Javaid Rehman, Ayesha Shahid, and Steve Foster, 117-43. Leiden: Brill Nijhoff.

Author: Farnush Ghadery

Abstract:

In recent years, peace and justice processes in post-conflict countries have turned into an industry of their own. With a variety of actors, norms and processes involved, the fields have not only expanded as areas of practice, but also attracted considerable attention amongst scholars. Whilst the role of the international community in post-conflict States, particularly as part of peace and justice processes, has been subject of much scholarly debate, this article focuses on international actors’ attempts at advancing women’s rights in predominantly Muslim post-conflict countries. It discusses the reluctance of the most significant international actor in a variety of post-conflict processes, namely the United Nations, to engage more closely with contextualised bottom-up approaches to women’s rights advocacy under its Women, Peace and Security agenda. The article focuses specifically on the United Nations’ failure to see the potential of Islamic feminism in post-conflict Afghanistan as an alternative to its hitherto strategy of grounding women’s rights in Western liberal conceptions of ‘universal’ human rights. It argues for a more contextual approach to women’s rights advocacy by the United Nations that allows for the possibility of including non-hegemonic rights discourses as well as granting more attention to local bottom-up approaches.

Topics: Feminisms, International Organizations, Post-Conflict, Peace Processes, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Religion, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2019

‘Sometimes Fear Gets in All Your Bones’: Towards Understanding the Complexities of Risk in Development Work

Citation:

Thorpe, Holly. 2020. "‘Sometimes Fear Gets in All Your Bones’: Towards Understanding the Complexities of Risk in Development Work." Third World Quarterly 41 (6): 939-57.

Author: Holly Thorpe

Abstract:

In the context of increasing risk for aid workers, a growing body of scholarship is focused on risk management in contexts of humanitarian assistance and development work. Much less attention, however, has been given to how staff and volunteers experience such risks. This paper adopts a feminist geographical approach to explore how development workers make meaning of risk in specific contexts. Adopting a qualitative approach, it draws upon 14 semi-structured in-depth interviews with international (7) and local (7) staff of an international educational and sporting non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Afghanistan. After exploring differences between local and foreign staff perceptions of risk, it also offers a gendered analysis of risk for women development workers in Afghanistan. In so doing, this paper contributes to the growing body of literature in ‘Aidland’ studies by revealing the complex understandings of risk and fear by both foreign and local staff in the same geographical and organisational context. For NGOs seeking to make life-saving decisions based on the calculation of risk, this paper evidences the need to also create space for the voices of local and foreign staff whose experiences of risk will be highly relational, embodied, gendered and context specific.

Keywords: Aidland, risk, Afghanistan, development work, culture, gender and feminism

Topics: Conflict, Feminisms, Gender, Humanitarian Assistance, International Organizations, NGOs Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2020

Vulnerability Factors of Afghan Rural Women to Disasters

Citation:

Hamidazada, Marina, Ana Maria Cruz, and Muneta Yokomatsu. 2019. "Vulnerability Factors of Afghan Rural Women to Disasters." International Journal of Disaster Risk Science 10: 573-90.

Authors: Marina Hamidazada, Ana Maria Cruz, Muneta Yokomatsu

Abstract:

Disaster management is a global challenge, but disasters do not affect men and women equally. In most of the world’s disasters, more females are impacted than males, and in Afghanistan the disparity between female and male victims is even greater. This study identifies and maps the relationships between the factors that make Afghan rural women more vulnerable to natural hazard-induced disasters. Data for this study were obtained through focus group discussions with rural women and men, as well as person-to-person interviews with employees of government and nongovernmental organizations at the national and local levels in Afghanistan. The study uses Grounded Theory and Interpretive Structural Modeling, not widely used before for this type of study, to analyze the data collected and to map the factors of vulnerability identified and their relationships. In agreement with previous studies, our findings show that insufficient disaster education, inadequate protection measures, and powerful cultural issues, both pre- and post-disaster, increase women’s vulnerability during and after disasters. In particular, cultural issues play a role after disasters by affecting women’s security, access to disaster aid, and health care. The study also found that perception regarding these cultural issues and how they affect women during disasters differs among men and women. Finally, by using Interpretive Structural Modeling, we show how the importance of the factors and their interrelationships change in pre-disaster and post-disaster situations. We conclude the article with some policy recommendations such as finding ways to allow women to participate in disaster planning activities and decision-making processes related to disaster risk reduction, as well as securing dedicated funds for the mainstreaming of gender in disaster risk reduction policies in Afghanistan.

Keywords: Afghanistan, disaster vulnerability, gender roles, Grounded Theory, rural area, women's vulnerability

Topics: Education, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health, NGOs Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan

Year: 2019

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